A Greater Good
by Somethingaboutsteelguarding
Summary: Serah is kidnapped and tortured by a group of people who have a clear set goal, to obtain something Hope is possessing. Why has Serah been kidnapped then? Not as dark as it sounds.
1. Closets and Kidnappings

'I wonder?' Serah Farron thought to herself, it was a beautiful day in the city of Academia and Noel and herself were spending it digging through a file cabinet. She turned to her friend who was sitting beside a stack of papers towering well above his height and the look on his face was of pure determination. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, it was obvious. Serah herself was anxious too, she had a lunch date with Snow and plans with her sister and she was almost beside herself in excitement. They were deciding a type of flower and color scheme for the wedding, a very important matter which Snow of course didn't believe was that important. Afterward she was heading dress shopping with Lightning whom was the designated maid of honor.

'I wonder why Hope send us on the mission of doing this instead of the hundreds of subordinates he had the power to control?' She thought. The man had asked Noel and Serah to head into the file room to locate a misplaced document. By the way Hope has described it it did sound important, but either way the two accepted the task.

"I think I found it." Noels voice broke through Serahs thoughts and she leaned over to look. It was exactly what Hope had described, a plain white sealed off folder. It looked like many of the others currently scattered around the two, except for one very outspoken detail. On the front was the name 'Lightning' written carefully in pen, Serah recognized it was Hopes hand writing. She would have ignored that detail except for the fact that now a days people mainly used computer text for addressing documents and yet this looked like it was written with the utmost precision and care. Why was Hope writing letters to her sister? She looked over at Noel who must have been thinking the same thing because his fingers carefully slid over the seal as he began to disengage it. Serah reacted immediately grabbing for the object while crashing her hand into a carefully stacked pile causing the tower to collapse between the two of them. Noels face lit up and he laughed as Serah recovered and snatched the document from him.

"Whats the deal?" He asked still a hint of amusement in his voice even though they both knew was a mess to clean up.

"Its not yours so why were you trying to open it?" She snapped back a little too harshly then added in a softer tone, "I wouldn't think Hope would want us to open it. He just told us to find it."

"Alright relax I wont look at Hopes love note to your sister." He said putting his hands up in defeat. while giving her a smirk he added, "You have a mess to clean up." and with that he was gone.

After nearly an hour of cleaning and reorganizing Serah left the file room, envelope in hand went to go find Hope. He was always where he was of course, standing in the center of the room pressing brightly lit buttons on the screen. It didn't look like he was getting very much work done with Mog fluttering around him asking him countless questions.

"What's that one for, Kupo?"

"That button simply shows the time." Hope replied without the slightest edge to his voice, unlike Noel who wants to throw the creature every time he asks something. Hope must like explaining things, he is a scientist after all. He saw Serah and smiled in relief, Mog could get slightly annoying at times.

Serah strode over to him and handed him the envelope. "I found it." She said in a sing song voice and Hope nodded.

"I can't thank you enough for spending the majority of your morning in a closet." He chuckled. It was true, he couldn't thank her enough but she would never admit that. She simply nodded holding back a laugh whilst Mog occupied himself by pressing the time button non stop.

"Can you do me one more favor?" Hope asked smiling sheepishly, Serah blinked. She couldn't afford to go into another closet. It was already steadily approaching 11:30 as she saw flashing across the screen above thanks to Mog, and her lunch date was at noon, giving her twenty minutes to get there, five minutes to wait for a table, two minutes to-

"Can you just give this to Light for me?" He asked handing her back the envelope breaking her chain of math related thoughts. "I know your seeing her today so I thought you could just hand it to her. Its pretty self explanatory."

"Of of course, I mean if I'm going to be seeing her than sure!" She was glad it was such a simple task, she hated letting people down. After saying goodbye and dragging Mog away from the pretty array of technology she was out and walking at a brisk pace toward the front of the building.

"Where are we going, kupo?" Mog asked floating at a steady speed next to Serah as the two of them began heading toward the restaurant. Serah forgot, Mog was banned from all restaurants in Academia because of a little incident that involved three waiters and a misplaced roast pig. Needless to say, Mog couldn't come with her.

"… darn." Serah realized. Now she would either have to send Mog flying back to Hope and risk something happening to the fragile little thing or walk all the way back. She eyed Mog carefully, he could make it right? Nothing would happen to him.

"Well Mog, I'm going to a restaurant with Snow. I need you to fly back to Hope and hang out with him a while longer alright?" She hoped Mog wouldn't question her too much and waste any time.

"Alright, kupo! I like Hope better than Snow anyways!" with that said Mog was already flying in the opposite direction. She paused to make sure he was going the right way and picked back up her pace.

Academia was a large maze of buildings and suspended walkways so when Serah discovered new shortcuts to places she would always take advantage of them. She was coming up to one of her favorites that went right to the restaurant and didn't think anything when she saw a few people standing and conversing. She began to walk past them when one of them quietly spoke her name.

She quickly turned to see who it was, maybe it was someone she knew? When all of a sudden she felt something prick her in the back of the neck and almost as soon as she felt it her throat began to tighten and her legs gave way. She would have hit the ground if someone hadn't caught her. It was a girl with long dark hair that hung in Serahs face as she supported her weight and lowered her down to the ground. Though Serahs mouth and limbs might not have been working her eyes and ears still were still functional.

"Don't worry, we wont hurt you." The girl that was holding her tried to reassure Serah who, on the inside was terrified and panicking, the only emotion showing on her face were her wide eyes.

"Glory don't lie to her." The man had pitch black hair and eyes but didn't seem all that intimidating, a laugh erupted from him, it was a sincere laugh which also seemed a bit creepy. Serah hoped that she wouldn't be left alone with him under any circumstances. Her eyes flickered back up to Glory, who seemed about as uncomfortable in this situation as Serah herself when all of a sudden the third accomplice spoke, another female.

"Okay guys we need to get out of here, Glory give her the full dose." Fiery red hair in contrast with deep blue eyes, she spoke like the leader.

"Do I have to Aria? She can't move or anything in the first place." Glory argued which Serah was thankful for, whatever was coursing through her veins, she didn't want more.

"I found something!" The male sang and Serah looked over to see him pick up the envelope meant for Lightning. He didn't hesitate tearing off the seal and ripping out the handwritten letter. He cleared his throat and Serah was amazed how nobody passed by and saw what was going on.

"Well then get on with it Sebastian!" Aria ordered.

"Dear Lightning, as you know valentines day is coming up. I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me Saturday? Sorry I couldn't ask in person as my work is getting a bit out of hand with a new discovery of a way to travel through time that expands on the matter of controlling without much more effort than thought itself! It that has completely baffled my entire department. Anyways, I wont go on about it too much. If you accept then give me a call and I'll try my best to answer. Have a nice day with Serah shopping. Yours truly, Hope."

If Serah wasn't in such a dangerous situation she would have laughed. Noel was right! It was a love letter! She could almost feel the corners of her mouth turning up.

"Whats the point of this?" Sebastian asked turning the letter over in every direction as if there was a hidden message somewhere.

"I think its useful" Aria said snatching the letter from him and folding it up to place in her pocket. "It mentioned a way to control time, and its Hope Esthiem were after so this little thing", she gestured at Serah as if she was some sort of garbage, "Is our hostage."

"You really think this will work?" Glory asked.

"Its either this or we never see Emily again." Aria responded earning a quick nod from Glory. Serah didn't like the sound of this. She couldn't feel the second prick but soon the corners of her eyes began to blur and she couldn't fight the fatigue that was washing over her. She blacked out.


	2. Gone

{Authors note: Hi to anyone who is reading this ^^ I think this chapter will explain my views on Hope/Lightning, but he can dream can't he?}

Noel sat quietly on a bench and unwrapped his lunch, a delicious meatball sub. It took him a while to acquire this baby, the line at his favorite sub shop was unnaturally long and the lady behind the counter kept trying to flirt with him. Noel shuddered at the thought, he wasn't particularly shallow but he could have swore that she had a beard. Ignoring that thought he took a bite into the delicious sauciness when he noticed Mog flying by. He expected to see Serah following close behind but when she wasn't he began to wonder.

"Hey Mog!" Noel shouted and several people turned around to look including Mog who kupo'd in excitement and flew over.

"Hey Noel, whats up kupo?" Mog asked.

"Wheres Serah?" Noel asked with a mouth full of food. He wasn't exactly the most mannered person around.

"On a date with Snow, kupo. She sent me away!" Mog announced and Noel shrugged, he wasn't too friendly with Snow and didn't entirely agree on this wedding but would never say so, he respected Serah too much.

"That's great." He said not very interested wiping the sauce from the side of his mouth. Why couldn't she have kept Mog with her? Not that he was annoying Noel that much but deep down Noel sensed that something bad would happen without her weapon at her side. Maybe he was over thinking things. She would have Snow and be fine.

Lightnings cellphone buzzed to life and she flipped it open ready to speak when she heard a familiar voice, but not entirely the one she wanted to hear.

"Hey Light?" Snow asked too loudly into the device causing Lightning to bring the phone about six inches from her ear. She had been waiting for Serah where she said she would meet her for the past hour and a half and finally they decided to call and let her know she was going to be late?

"Who else would it be? This is my cell phone after all."

"Right well is Serah there with you?"

Light caught a slight hint of worry in his voice and added, "No when did she leave the restaurant?"

"She never showed up, I thought she decided to go shopping with you first at the last minute? So neither of us have seen her?"

"Right." Lightning sighed and looked up and down the street for the millionth time as if Serah would just come walking but she didn't. Snow swore and she could hear him begin pacing, she assumed he was at his house because she heard the cat in the background yelp as he stepped on its tail for the billionth time.

"So shes missing?" Snow assumed and Lightning shook her head slowly, Serah couldn't be missing she was an adult for crying out loud not a child. She couldn't imagine where she would be though and this city was full of strange people. Worry began to creep into her.

"Snow relax I bet shes fine, we just need to call around and see if anyone has seen her" Lightning tried to convince Snow but really she was trying to convince herself too. Serah the sister she tried so hard to bring back years ago then who had done the same for her could be gone again? The thought of going through another adventure to find her made her sick.

"Your right, you call Hope and ask when was the last time he saw her and I'll do the same for Noel." He said 'Noel' with a bit of an edge behind his voice, Lightning figured if Serah blew him off to spend the day with Noel then Snow would have a few not so kind things to say to him. She agreed and hung up to dial Hopes number.

Hope couldn't believe his eyes, it had only been a few hours since Serah had left and Lightning was already calling! He tried to contain his enthusiasm and answered as normally as possible. "Hello?"

"Hope hey." Lightning said not really knowing how to approach this, she didn't want to alarm him by jumping down his throat and asking where Serah is but she didn't really want to waste time either.

"So I'll pick you up around 8 on Saturday?" He tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, he still couldn't believe she called this fast! She must be as excited about this as he is. Everything seemed to be working out perfectly lately.

"Pick me up?" She asked completely confused. Did she miss something? He also sounded a bit different, was he purposefully trying to make his voice sound deeper? Maybe he had a cold, it was a bit chilly out.

"Yeah or did you just want to meet there?" He furrowed his brow in frustration, was Lightning a feminist or something?

"Hope I have no idea what your talking about, it sounds like your trying to make a date with me or something?" She didn't mean to sound so angry but seriously? Serah's missing and all he can think of is dates? She couldn't even remember him asking her on one in the first place!

"I thought- Wait you not? My letter?" Hope stuttered, Lightning must have not read his letter! Then why was she calling, he didn't understand. "N-never mind I thought you were someone else!" He tried to cover it up.

She shook her head, Never in a million years would she date Hope, what was he thinking! She had more pressing matters on hand though. "Have you seen Serah today?"

A bright Light shined directly in her face caused Serah to groan and roll over in her sleep pulling the blankets over her head. What was Snow doing? She wondered until she began to remember. The smell was the first thing to snap her back to reality, a heavy aroma of cherries and cotton candy almost like some cheep perfume filled her nose it wasn't too bad though. Eyes wide Serah pulled the warm blanket off her face and looked around. She seemed to be in a simple room, white walls and she was on a bed. The thing that really upset her though was the fact that the room was split into two sections, separated by traditional jail cell bars. Her skin began to craw and she quickly stumbled out of the bed twisting her leg in the blankets causing her to land face first on the carpet. She quickly jumped up glad that her captures didn't catch her doing that, she didn't want them to think of her as weak and clumsy.

Now able to survey her surroundings a bit better, on her caged side of the room was a small table with a single chair, a stand with a neatly folded pile of clothes upon it she would almost definitely refuse to wear.

On the opposing side the only thing that sat was another similar stand with a small silver key on it. Serah's heart did a back flip, it was within reaching distance. She could get out? Her fingers twitched in anticipation as her legs moved toward the front of the cell. She then froze trying to figure out why they would make it so easy? It was a guaranteed trap. Not sure what to do next she stood in the middle of the room to organize her thoughts. First of all she knew she was being held hostage, second she knew they wanted Hope for a device to alter time, and third Snow and Lightning are probably tearing down the sky to find her.

That thought made her feel a little bit better, her biggest concern was her captors though. She had no idea what to expect. As if on cue the door handle turned and Serah nearly jumped. She was a bit glad it was Glory, the one who seemed to care the most about her well not exactly care but it was better than it being one of the other two. The girl entered the room holding a plate of food and Serahs stomach rumbled in anticipation. How long has it been since shes last eaten? Wait was that a plate of candy?

Glory gave Serah a sheepish smile and folded the plate in half containing the array of chocolates and sugary snacks before pushing it in between the bars, which Serah took. "I'm a horrible cook and all Sebastian ever buys is candy so.." She trailed off. It was pretty obvious there wasn't too much of a choice here for Serah, but who hates candy anyways. She bit a piece of chocolate.

"You didn't try the key?" She asked picking it up and putting it into her pocket. "Aria was trying to test you, it doesn't unlock that." Glory nodded toward the padlock rejecting Serah from the outside world.

"I guessed that." Serah said between bites of chocolate. People kidnap her, lock her in a room and feed her candy? What was the point of all this?


End file.
